Himachal's climate-resilient agriculture attracts foreigners

Shimla, Sep 26 The low cost climate-resilient agriculture a type of farming involving eco-friendly processes in the face of climate change with the optimum use of cow dung and cow urine to make the degraded soil nutrients healthy again is not only gaining ground in the mountainous state of Himachal Pradesh but also attracting researchers.

One such researcher Carole Durand, 28, from France is currently in the state to understand how the unregulated use of fertilizers and pesticides has degraded the soil, deteriorated the groundwater causing health hazards. Now natural farming, involving chemical-free sustainable agriculture, has been scaled up.

"If we want to sustain ourselves in a more natural way, non-chemical farming is a great option," Carole Durand from Aveyron told .

Durand is in the state with her friend, Shahzad Parbhoo from Maharashtra to gain first hand knowledge of the low cost climate resilient natural farming technique being promoted by the state government under Prakritik Kheti Khushhal Kisan Yojana.

The state has been advocating Subash Palekar's zero budget natural farming, a technique promoted by Padma Shri recipient Subhash Palekar in the mid-1990s with no use of fertilisers and pesticides, resulting in high profits.

As per official records, 133,056 farmers have switched over to natural farming in the state where 10.84 per cent of land holdings are owned by semi-medium and medium farmers and just 0.30 per cent by large farmers.

The farmers are doing the natural way farming on 7,609 hectares after training organized by the State Project Implementing Unit.

A nurse by profession, Durand came to India five years ago. For the last three years, she along with Parbhoo, a management professional, has been exploring the possibilities of non-chemical agriculture as a livelihood option.

"My grandfather, who was a strawberry farmer in France, died of brain cancer, may be because strawberries need frequent chemical sprays. The chemical farming has done much damage to the health of farmers in that area," she explained.

There is awareness among people about organic farming in France, but natural farming is amazing, she told the media.

"I had met Rajeshwar Singh Chandel